In Rome we have been seeing members of the Schoenstaat movement all over the place, as they gather for centenary celebrations. Pope Francis addressed them and had some things to say about the state of the family today.
From EWTN/CNA:
In an audience with members of an international Marian movement, Pope Francis warned that the sacrament of marriage has been reduced to a mere association, and urged participants to be witnesses in a secular world.
“The family is being hit, the family is being struck and the family is being bastardized,” the Pope told those in attendance at the Oct. 25 audience.
He warned against the common view in society that “you can call everything family, right?” [ZAP!]
“What is being proposed is not marriage, it’s an association. But it’s not marriage! It’s necessary to say these things very clearly and we have to say it!” Pope Francis stressed. [Okay! Let’s say it! And will the secular MSM pick it up? Will they report that their darling Pope Francis, the first Pope who ever smiled, the first Pope who ever kissed a baby, the most wonderfullest fluffiest Pope ehvur, made it clear that attempts to confuse the concept of family and marriage must be resisted? NEWS FLASH: Pope Francis seems not to think that homosexual unions, even with adopted children, are “marriages” and “families”. Will the catholic media report on this? I just went over to the site of the Fishwrap and did a search on the keyword “Schoenstaat”. Zip.]
He lamented that there are so many “new forms” of unions which are “totally destructive and limiting the greatness of the love of marriage.” [“‘new forms’ of unions”… hmmm… what ever could be mean?]
Noting that there are many who cohabitate, or are separated or divorced, he explained that the “key” to helping is a pastoral care of “close combat” that assists and patiently accompanies the couple.
Pope Francis offered his words in a question-and-answer format during his audience with members of the Schoenstatt movement, held in celebration of the 100th anniversary of its founding in Germany.
Roughly 7,500 members of the international Marian and apostolic organization, both lay and clerics from dozens of nations around the world, were present in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall for the audience.
In his answers to questions regarding marriage, Pope Francis explained that contemporary society has “devalued” the sacrament by turning it into a social rite, removing the most essential element, which is union with God. [If it is a social rite, then I suppose three or four or more can all “marry”, including Spot, the family pet.]
“So many families are divided, so many marriages broken, (there is) such relativism in the concept of the Sacrament of Marriage,” he said, noting that from a sociological and Christian point of view “there is a crisis in the family because it’s beat up from all sides and left very wounded!”
[…]
“There is a crisis in the family because it’s beat up from all sides and left very wounded!”
“The family is being bastardized.”
I’ll say.
And as the family goes, so goes society.
Perhaps next year’s synod will look at this in a substantive way.
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Thank you, Pope Francis, for speaking clearly.
And this for Padre Z!
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Psst, Fr., try spelling it Schoenstatt or Schönstatt – 1 a and 3 t’s ;-)! However, I don’t think you will find anything about it in that paper anyway…
Ah where was this pope during the Synod. It is great for him to be preaching this to a gathering of Schoenstatt but he is preaching to the choir, he needed to say this at the Synod and to the world. Maybe he got the message from the Orthodox branch of the Church. Let us see if it continues. I pray this is the angle he takes for the next year until the reconvening of the synod. Let’s hope it is not the old give the dog a treat to get him close than beat him to death routine we have seen of late. Consistancy would be nice. Like I said this is not the message we were getting from his core group in the synod, but if he keeps this up I will be the first one to stand up and defend him. Continuity, it is a good word but it is better when put into action.
RJHighland- Right!!
This is the message that the world needs to hear about marriage.
This is the clear message that his own bishops need to hear.
It is absolutely the message that his bishops need to communicate.
Father, I totally agree with you, but shudder when I think of Spot, the beloved pet of Dick, Jane and baby Sally, being drug into this.
It’s a shame that Pope Francis chose not to open the recent Synod with that line.
(btw – Amazon has finally shipped Remaining in the Truth of Christ – due tomorrow!)
@RJHighland:
I think the reason the Pope remained silent during the synod comes from his desire for the synod to be completely advisory. He wanted the (pre?)-synod in order to follow through with his concept of collegiality. Whether that was a good administrative move or not, it was at least consistent.
I hate to seem overly critical of His Holiness, but I don’t know what he means by, “there is a crisis in the family because it’s beat up from all sides and left very wounded!”
Are traditionalists beating up and wounding the family? Why does every pronouncement result in a statement along the lines of, “A pox on both your houses”? It seems Pope Francis has a tendency– or, at the least, a rhetorical one– toward extreme moderatism.
VexillaRegis says: . . . try spelling it Schoenstatt or Schönstatt . . .
A search of either spelling in ncronline.org — using either the site’s search box or Google search — turns up fewer than a dozen entries, and none from recent days.
Very encouraging from His Holiness, especially after a very disheartening Extraordinary Synod this year. His Holiness continues, though, to confuse, and send mixed messages. I hope the Ordinary Synod in 2015 will produce a clearer, more orthodox message along these lines than the nearly-avoided travesty that was this year’s synod.
RJHighland says:
28 October 2014 at 6:04 am
Ah where was this pope during the Synod. It is great for him to be preaching this to a gathering of Schoenstatt but he is preaching to the choir, he needed to say this at the Synod and to the world.
THe Pope has spoken, He always said before the synod , he meant not to be though of or seen af favouring sides.
But, after the final speech, and this others, his position is quite clear. Do not forget the state of the family has been a main concern for years for PF now.
THe second and final part of the synod will start with no unclear points regarding Papal stance , at least on this issue.
You notice how Pope Francis speaking clearly and mainstream media reporters are never in the same room together? It’s like Batman and Bruce Wayne! That must mean… Pope Francis’s clarity of speech has a secret identity as some journalist’s thesaurus? Or maybe Pope Francis’s secret identity is Pope Francis, and he has his Bruce Wayne and Batman voices mixed up?
Or maybe it’s quantum physical, a la Heisenberg’s “Uncertainty Principle”? Just as one cannot know both the position and the spin of the same subatomic particle at the same point in time, one cannot know whether Pope Francis upholds the Church’s teaching and whether he can speak to newspapermen at the same point in time? Will we need String Theory to explain the Francis Effect?
In all seriousness, it’s good to know that His Holiness actually thinks and says things like this even if it hardly gets heard by the world.
bmadamsberry & marcelus, I pray you are right only time will tell and we shall see if his position remains so clear, but appreciate your optimism. Clarity from the See of Peter prevents confussion in the Church, if he is clear there is no confussion.